


Trial

by theamazingfrog



Category: Haldonia
Genre: Auras, Everyone is scared, Magic, Other, Tags Are Hard, aganeem is probably just confused, jean is freaking tf out, jean's story, relis is protective as always, trial
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-17
Updated: 2019-04-17
Packaged: 2020-01-15 11:32:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,648
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18498094
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theamazingfrog/pseuds/theamazingfrog
Summary: In which a trial is interrupted by the appearance of a new colour.





	Trial

“Are you scared?”

Jean was about to use their ‘gift’ in a trial for the first time; Relis thought it was a good idea, so they couldn’t really argue. He seemed to believe that it would show the outcome of the trial. Wouldn’t that defeat the point of having the trial? Jean had said, but Relis ignored them. They had a feeling that it was going to go wrong, but, well… if Relis said it’d be fine, it’d be fine.

Relis was currently standing next to Jean, with a hand on their shoulder and concern in his dark eyes. He, of course, was green right now. His emerald aura calmed Jean; if he would survive then so would Jean. Hopefully.

Apparently, the criminal today was Liam Holt, who had been caught in the magic sanctum a few days ago.

“Jean? Did you hear me?” Relis said softly. Jean shook their head. “I said, are you scared?”

Gods, they were petrified. “I, uh… no…” They mumbled and picked at a scab on their wrist. Relis gently batted their hand away and gave their shoulder a squeeze.

“You’ll do great. Nothing’ll go wrong, don’t worry.” Relis’ words didn’t help much. Jean really wanted to find a mirror, to check that their own reflection wasn’t rose-tinted, but unfortunately Relis had already pushed the doors open. His ivy-coloured aura would have to be comfort enough.

The throne room hadn’t changed at all since it was Jean who was on trial. The pair’s feet clicked in unison on the black marble floor, getting the attention of the young man chained to the ground in the centre. Twilight was streaming in through the large windows and filling the room. It was nice. Calming. Well, slightly.

At the front of the room, Lord Aganeem stood next to Relis’ throne, his posture rigid and formal as always. Relis strolled up to him, gave a brief nod, and sat down. Crossing his legs, he gestured for Jean to stand next to him, on the other side to Aganeem. Jean meekly obliged; the quicker this was over, the quicker Jean could get back to their room and the quicker they could stop being afraid.

There was a young man. Chains ran from his ankles to the floor and his bright blue-green hair, a jolt of colour in the otherwise greyscale room, was tangled and dirty. His arms were covered in bruises (presumably from being dragged away from the fountain) and his fingers were tap-tap-tap-tapping on the cold ground.

The room was cool, but Jean felt far too hot; some fresh air wouldn’t go unappreciated right now. Their heart was pounding, threatening to leap right out of their chest and spurt blood all over the spotless floor. Please let this be over soon.

“What colour is he, Jean?” Relis whispered in Jean’s ear, sending shivers down their spine.

“Orange,” They replied shakily. They tapped their foot on the floor and picked at their nails. Their hands were clammy, their breath came far too quickly, why were they so damn scared?

“Good, good. Thank you,” Relis replied and turned to Lord Aganeem, muttering something that Jean couldn’t hear properly.

Shaking, they looked again at Liam, whose dark eyes seemed to pierce into Jean like hot knives. A look of recognition lit up his face as he mouthed, ‘Jean?’

Jean felt their stomach lurch. How did he know them? Was he someone from before, someone they’d forgotten? Panic gripped them as they looked at Relis. He was still looking at Lord Aganeem, thankfully. Was Jean going to be in trouble? Did they know him after all?

Liam tilted his head. ‘Jean Larkent?’ He mouthed again. ‘It’s me, Liam!’ Oh Gods. Jean thought they were going to faint and they could hear static in their ear and they were too hot and oh my gods I’m going to-

“Liam Holt,” Relis said loudly, bringing Jean back to what was happening in the room, “You were found in the Sanctum, somewhere that is explicitly forbidden for anybody outside the three people you see before you to enter. What do you have to say in your defence?” His voice was crystal-clear and a stony expression had made itself at home on Relis’ face. Liam took a deep breath and replied in an equally clear and bold voice.

“Why should I obey you, who has killed Haldonia’s king and many others who stood in your path of destruction?” He wasn’t afraid.

“Bring me Golathi then, let him tell me that what I’m doing is wrong. I’ll wait.” Relis said, leaning forward in his seat.

“I-”

“Ha! That old fool is long dead, and it’s a good thing too. Did you ever see anything happen when he was on the throne, anything that benefited the kingdom? Look around you,” Relis waved his arms towards the window, “Haldonia is prospering. Golathi never used his power for good so I decided that-”

“You slaughtered thousands of Haldonians like animals! King Golathi would never have done that!” Liam interrupted angrily, standing up now. His fists were tightly balled up and he glowered at Relis, who stood up as well. Oh dear.

Relis walked down the steps, an irritated expression covering his face. He grabbed Liam’s head in his hand.

“I am your king now. You are to obey me, and me alone.” He hissed.

“You’re no king of mine. I’d never obey a murderer like you, I’d rather die.” Liam spat, fully expecting Relis to snap his neck then and there. Instead, he laughed.

“Look at you! You say you’d never obey a murderer,” He chuckled, dropping Liam, “And yet you pledge allegiance to the Great King Golathi. He was a killer too, he just covered it up with flowers and patriotism.” Jean watched Liam’s aura fade from amber into blood-red. 

“That was dumb.” Jean mumbled to themself. Relis turned to face them.  
"I'm sorry, what was that, Jean?"

“He, he’s red now.” They mumbled. Relis smiled.

“Jean, help me out here!” Liam suddenly shouted. “Please, you’ve got to back me up! Remember how we used to be? Help me kick his ass, Jean!”

All eyes in the room were on Jean. Fear gnawed at their bones and made their blood run cold. Relis narrowed his eyes at Jean, who was frozen to the spot.The atmosphere was so tense it could be cut with a knife.  
“Do you know him?” Aganeem leaned over and murmured. Jean shook their head, desperate to not be thought of as a traitor. He nodded at Relis, who could see very clearly that this Liam was somebody that Jean had forgotten.

“Go on, Jean,” Relis sneered, more at Liam than at Jean, “tell me how close you two are. Kick my ass. I’m sure you’d love to, right?” The room seemed to sway beneath Jean’s feet as they looked helplessly between the two men.

“I…”

“Jean, please!” Liam was getting angry, Jean could tell that much, “you’re acting like you don’t even know me!” Yelling, why is, why is he yelling at me, what did I do wrong, I don’t, I don’t even, even know you, Jean thought as their breath became quicker and heavier. They reached out a hand to the throne to steady themself as they swayed.

“I don’t… I, I don’t know you.” Jean sputtered, the words tangling together as they lurched forwards, I’m, I’m gonna, I'm gonna, gonna-

“Jean? Are you alright?” Relis asked, worry etched upon his face as he walked over and reached out for Jean’s hand.  
“I… I’m, I’m fine-” The room suddenly swayed dramatically and they tripped forward into Relis’ strong arms. Panic was taking over them, why were they suddenly so afraid? Something awful was going to happen, they knew it, why didn’t they try harder to convince Relis that this was an awful, a, a terrible, awful idea?

“Fine. If you won’t help me then I’ll help myself.” Liam declared, but nobody was paying enough attention. Jean tried to breathe steadily, counting in-two-three, out-two-three and focusing on Relis’ blurry features, but they couldn’t focus properly because of the high-pitched ringing in their ears and the static taking over their eyes and the sudden rise in temperature. It’s too hot, why’s it too hot? It was cold a minute ago,

“Relis! Pay attention!” Aganeem gasped as Liam reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a thumb-sized glass bottle filled with a familiar glow. Magic. 

Aganeem rushed forwards to knock the bottle out of Liam’s hands, but he was a moment too late because Liam had already swallowed the contents. Jean’s lidded eyes suddenly widened in shock as they watched Liam’s aura change before them. Relis noticed and shook them gently.

“Jean, what’s wrong?”

Jean couldn’t articulate their horror at what had just happened. The calming orange light of the sunset now seemed to become flames, engulfing Jean with white-hot terror. This, this Liam shouldn’t have magic, how did he get magic, what if he kills everybody, what if he kills Relis? Jean had known something awful was going to happen and they hadn’t spoken up, it was their fault things were going to go wrong. Their ears filled with static and black sparks danced at the edges of their vision, threatening to swallow the room. No. There’s no, no, no possible way. This, this isn’t happening. Liam stood up, his eyes glinting in the orange twilight and the chains around his ankles melted away like ice in fire. If they’d have just fucking remembered this guy none of this would have happened, it was all Jean’s fault, Relis was going to have them killed for this because he knew that they could see and they didn’t tell him. I’ve, I’ve never seen that colour aura before, what’s going on, I, I, he’s-

Relis urged them, “Jean! What colour is he?” 

“He’s… he's blue.”

**Author's Note:**

> Another old piece of writing that, incidentally, I used in my English Lang GCSE because miraculously I'd written it the night before and it fit the prompt and I was super proud of it. Don't know if this part will fit into the main story, but it's some good characterisation for Jean so I'm posting it. Jean's powers are lowkey heavily influenced by that one writing prompt where you can see people's auras and your teacher walks in and everyone is red.


End file.
